It is known to provide a stator core for a motor or alternator which is formed by a stamped helically wound continuous strip. The advantage over a non-helical stator with discrete stacked laminations is less scrap. With a layered lamination stator comprising a plurality of stacked laminations, the center of each lamination becomes scrap material. By stamping a strip and then helically winding that strip, however, there is less scrap loss since only regions between tangs of the stator strip are lost and also perhaps a small scrap strip where the opposite sides of the strip are stamped.
In a known method for helically winding a strip for a motor or alternator stator core, it was known to provide an inside pressure wheel which would contact outer ends of tangs of the strip, along with an outside pressure wheel contacting a base portion of the strip. A disadvantage with this known method is that if the tangs are not short, thick, and closely spaced, or the base portion of the strip is too narrow, the tangs can be bent and deformed when the outside pressure wheel applies pressure on the ends of the tangs in a direction of a longitudinal extent of the tang as the strip is being bent.